Any Electricians Out There?

[sotal]

Just saw that somebody had posted about plumbing so thought I would do the same with electrics!

I'm just putting an en-suite shower room in. Everything is going fine except obviously I need to get the wiring done for the shower.

Now because of Part P coming along from the 1st of Jan, I decided to put the wiring in for the lights and the shower before the 1st of Jan (so as not to break the law )

So I have run the cable from where the shower is going through the house to the fuse box. The only thing is I haven't connected it.

My Consumer unit is full, there is no space for any more fuses - so I did some research :bookworm: and found that I can get a small consumer unit to go next to the main consumer unit which would just go to the shower with a 45Amp Fuse. That all seemed fine - but:

a.) how the hell do I connect the small consumer unit up to the main one?

b.) won't the circuit be live whilst trying to connect it?

c.) will I have to pay an electrician to come and spend 10 minutes connecting it up? - the only quote I have had so far, the electrician said he has to charge a full day to cover transport etc - so it would be £160+VAT + Parts which seems alot for ten minutes work

Any ideas from any electricians??

[stevetubbyturbo]

I just our sparkey here and he says

Under part P of building regs you will have to have a registered sparkey come and fit it plain and simple really

Sorry

[sotal]

Yeah I guessed that but...

lets just say for arguements sake it's still christmas day 2004 (before part p started) and I fancied putting the extra box in. How would it actually be done? The only way I can see is to connect it up to the live wires which come from the supply. These are live all the time and the only way they can be stopped is to pull the fuse out of the electricity boards black box (which is illegal and requires cutting the tamper seals)

I mean do the Electricians go in to those boxes then just reseal them? Do they have to get someone from the electricity board to come and do it? Or do they just put some thick rubber glovers on

Just wondering more than anything so I know what to expect them to do! I don't really fancy doing it myself (legal or not) as I don't fancy 240 volts up my arm on the other side of the RCD!

[GIDDLEPIN]

I fitted a new consumer unit in the place of the old wiry fuse thingy and I found that the main fuse had just enough slack on the seal so as to pop it fit the new unit and plug back in.

I also utilised the old cooker feed to the kitcen for another, smaller consumer unit to supply my conservatory, but used RCD's in the place of MCB's, as only the lights and a couple of sockets were involved there has never been a problem.

[knightrider]

add a new small consumer unit next to the exsisting one and move say one of the socket circuits to the new board and put the shower on the board too, then add a 40 A trip where the socets where to feed the new consumer unit uve just added, as for the shower what rating in kilowatts is it?

[sotal]

@Knightrider - Now that's the kind of thing I was thinking.

The shower will be 8.5KW so will probably require a 40amp trip, 10mm wire etc. I can pick up a decent "piggy back unit" fairly cheap then put the shower and the immersion heater on the piggy back unit and wire that up to where the immersion heater used to be. Then I will stick the pair on a 45amp fuse. Can't see us ever using the immersion heater and the shower at the same time as we have never used the immersion heater! (was think about just disconnecting that all together)

I guess a light circuit might be better to put on with it to reduce the potential load?

...I mean that's what the part p certified electrician will do ...

I looked it up in a DIY manual yesterday to see how you are "suppposed" to do it, that says to put the new unit next to the original one, then get an electrician in to make the connection to the supply, who will need to get someone from the electricity board to cut the power whilst they do it. :( Lots of money!

[nrgizerbunny]

The plot thickens!

I phoned up the local planning office to ask about the plumbing! who are sending me an idiots guide to the new regs. anyway he said if its renewing an old installation, you can do what you like, if you are installing a new build then you are "suppposed" to get a sparky with nic membership to come and make the connection.

Now with gas I can understand, but with electricity all you have to do is unsheath the cable and then put it in the terminal and screw it down!

[sotal]

According to the New Part P regulations which came out on the 1st of January 2005, you can do bugger all with your electrics!

You can change a light fitting, replace a broken socket, and change a switch but that's about it - You can't add lights, sockets or any additional wiring

It's completely :censor: stupid! but it's all because some bloke who's high up in government had his kitchen utensils wired up to the mains and his daughter killed herself when she fetched a large metal spoon.

The bloke had put the utensil rack up himself and put the screw into a mains wire which had been self fitted by the previous owner of the house. So he was obviously a bit pee'd (as I would be) and decided nobody should be able to put electrics in without being certified to do so and follow all guide lines so you can make an intelligent guess as to where the wire would go.

[nrgizerbunny]

what a plonker, did he not get a wire tester to check first! there are so many dodgy builders out there that i am sure that half the wires in most houses go diagonally down the walls.

does this mean b and q is not going to sell light fittings etc any more.

this part P business really does peev me off, because its my house i'll do a really good job. If i get a guy from the yellow pages, its not their house and they do it for a living so they are more prepared to cut corners than I would be.

[sotal]

The thing that pees me off most about "part p" is that they haven't told anyone! Theres just a sort of rumor going round and when you look into it you find out it's true. Surely there should have been some adverts saying "don't do your electrics" or something on the news - but I haven't seen anything.

I guess you might do a good job but some idiots who don't know what they are doing may take the easiest route. Espicially people doing houses up to sell them on where profit is everything.

The plonker who started it off claimed the electrics where incorrectly done because they went across the wall wheras they should have gone verticle first. I've got to say a wire/pipe checker would have been a good idea - but I know I don't check everytime I put a screw/nail in the wall!